International Day of Sign Languages

Sign languages are languages that convey meaning visually. It is not clear how many of these languages exist around the world. Generally, each country has its own native sign language. In fact, some countries have more than one. You may be interested to learn a bit more about the history of sign languages. These languages have been used throughout history by groups of deaf people. In fact, one of the earliest written records of a sign language was in Plato's Cratylus, from 15th century BC.

There is not a lot that is known about historical sign languages pre the 19th century. The information is limited to fingerspelling systems, known as manual alphabets. These were invented so that words could be transferred from the spoken language to a sign language. The first manual alphabet is thought to have been developed by Pedro Ponce de Leon.

The correlation between spoken languages and sign languages is complicated and differs depending on the country more than the language spoken. For example, English is the dominant language in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Canada, and the US. However, American Sign Language (ASL), which is used in the United States and English-speaking Canada, is actually derived from the French Sign Language. It has no relation to the New Zealand, Australian, and British Sign Language. At international events, such as the meetings of the World Federation of the Deaf and Deaflympics, International Sign is used. This used to be known as Gestuno.